Short Story Collection
by Spacesama Bin Laden
Summary: Idea box where I make stories at the length I want, when I want.
1. Lost to the Night

Hello all! I'm Heterica! This is my first story in a few months, so here we go. On Fanfiction, my song is ending as I reach for my 19th month here! I just love it when you review, so please do. Thanks, Signed, Heterica Derpington

As I awoke, I could not see. The glare of the blazing, fiery sun was blocking it. As I looked around, I remembered where I was. It was my home, ThunderClan. Where else would I be? Yet, strangely, I felt a calling elsewhere. It was a longing, as two lovers, separated cannot help but wonder, wait, and hope.

My home felt alien, unknown, shallow. I felt a deeper life calling. I heard a whisper, too difficult to hear all of it: "farewell… shall… sleep..."

I finally shook off the cold, and went to get some fresh kill. Somehow, I was still off a bit, but I could manage. I ate the shrew.

How long did I have left on this world. How long then, would I last before I would fade from the memories of the eldest elders, how long before there would be a void?

The years would fly by. I could be happy now, but never forever. Happiness is a vanity. Here today, gone tomorrow, as vapors and green-leaf.

This was all very depressing. I shook it off and decided to make up for my meal with twice the share.

Normally, I love hunting. Hunting is what I adore. I'm a natural. My claws are sharp, and my feet are light. I caught something. Then, I realized: accomplishment is a vanity.

A kit will open his eyes, and soon, it will happen every moment, and it's wonder will flee from him. He will learn to hunt, and when he catches a rabbit, he catches a dozen the next moon. He shall then have a kit. He will have 3 more, and they will have them. He will advance, and it will all be wasted upon his entry of the elder's den.

I catch a hare. It looks at me with the deadness in it's eyes and I shudder. This could be me to a fox, and so with the fox to a wolf, and so with a wolf to a bear, and so to a bear twolegs, and so to twolegs dust. I thank StarClan with half a heart. If StarClan is up there, why should this be so. Should not twolegs and ourselves never cease to live in harmony, that we should have no strife? If StarClan cannot destroy death, who created it? If not StarClan, who can?

I feel as if the answer lies across a gorge, and it is impossible to cross. If I fly across, if I can, I will lose myself to it, and if it is nothing, on what shall I stand? Then again, if now I stand on StarClan, and they stand on nothing, then what shall happen? Will they not fall down? If they are themselves susceptible to oblivion, what shall keep my self from it?

I realize that whatever took me from my clan has freed me. But, freedom is not free. All of it comes at an unbearable cost, and how shall I then live? Freedom is pain, and ignorance oblivion. Cursed is the day that I was born. May I have been stillborn, never to see day's light.

I now have no clue what choice I shall make. Shall I warn them of the oblivion, or shun them from the light, the searing light, the burning heat of sun. I must make the choice, the voice tells me, or I will be torn apart, shattered as by a bolt of lightning.

I can't sleep. I'm too conscious. What will my choice be? Will I go through the motions, or risk pain for those I love. I do not know. Please, someone help me. I'm so very cold.

And this night as I lay awake, I pray that StarClan my soul may take.

For even if I should gain flight, it shall be lost to the night.

Hope you liked it, Heterica.


	2. Lost to the Path

Hello all, Bienvenidas a Capitulo Dos! I am extremely excited to be writing. My goal is 650 words per chapter, 2 per day. That is 9,100 words in a week! Please like. Signed, Heterica Deprington.

I awaken. Once again, a mist shrouds me. The rising sun makes me squint. I rise and stretch. I am on dawn patrol. I will go with my clanmates to check on the area near moonpool stream, separating WindClan and my own.

As I walk through the woods, I attempt to converse. I talk to Stonepelt, a friend of mine. Strange, I feel like it's been forever. I ask him, nervously, "So, what's up?" He looks at me funny with the obvious signs in my tail and scent. He then replies "I think the better question is, what's wrong with you."

The deal with Stonefur is that he's observant and blunt. He, due to these virtues, was asked to be medicine cat. He declined, saying it would get him nowhere. I pondered his question. Should I tell him the truth? It would crush him. He's worked so hard, he would know I had actually seen something, been unblinded. He would get depressed. He would possibly even end it all. It would be all my fault.

While thinking this, we came to a halt. We had reached the border. We ran back and forth along it. Nobody was there… wait, that scent… there's WindClan. Smells of rabbit and long grass. I start to run, and then start thinking. Oh StarClan no, not the thoughts.

I shudder. What is the point of borders? Does prey have borders? Does grass have borders? No, instead of strength, it exposes our weakness. We defend the little we have at the cost of death and then we have even less. We have become monsters in our war. We have been possessed in our battle. With our claws, we rip out souls. With our teeth, we destroy their land. Thus, we have destroyed ourselves.

It turns out to be stale, but where does it lead? It is very stale, so very old. Many have walked this path. It has the stench of rot, the scent of despond. I look up, and I see the corpses.

Somehow, I remember an old rhyme, lodged deep in my memory. It sings to me "…Oh the years they fly, up, down goes the sun, you and I must die…"

I gasp. The bodies are of Stonepelt, Redstar, Hailwing, and Rosefur. Those near to my heart… gone. I shiver again. Stonepelt shakes me. I've been out cold for a quarter of a day. He asks me if I'm okay. My answer of course is "Never again."

He tells me as I walk home, "Greyfur, I'm worried."

I reply, "Hey, that was a one-time thing. No more sleeping on the way to the stream."

"No, not that, I mean, in the past few days, you've changed. You never make jokes. You never visit the newborn kits. You don't look at your mother. She's been heartbroken since Leafclaw died. She can't sleep. She's lost one. She can't afford to lose two. She is desperate for comfort."

"I can't give comfort. Not after what has happened. I desperately, truely, love her, but I can't live without the truth. The truth is like water in a ravine. I've fallen off. Without it, I'll die, with it, I live with pain, with my only hope being there is a beautiful lake at the end. The thing is, we're all falling, falling into oblivion. If I tell you any more, I might just break you. Please Stonepelt, don't ask anymore! For your own life, I beg you!"

He replies,"If you believe something is too hard to tell someone, dare to. Lies can kill thousands, the truth can save millions. However, if you ever mix lies with the truth, you can destroy billions."

Like I said earlier, he's frank. We rest and have an uneventful evening. However, the night may be too much to bear.

I'm shaken. I know my answer now. Even if I crack, at least I'll know I tried.


	3. Lost to the Current

שלום, my friends. How has life been going for you? I'm about to tell you the third part of my story. Please give courtesy to others and spam the review box now. Heterica Derpington appreciates your concern. Enjoy the story.

I awoke with a shiver. It was growing. I could feel the rift breaking. I saw a flash. It was a battle, a chaos so terrible no cat could describe. I realized this was taking place where I went to in my dreams.

Was that real? Is any of this real? How can I know? What if nothing exists and my mind is an illusion of itself. I feel a monstrous cold consuming me, as if heat brings no light. I can't imagine how I could live like this without companionship. I understand why I must now, if never, tell them.

What, though, should I tell them? It would seem to ridiculous to tell them up front. However, I must try, because the truth is setting them free. Perhaps, I am waiting for the dawn to turn into morning, and finally bring warmth to my body. Or, perhaps I am in hypothermia, falsely claiming to know warmth when I am being consumed by cold. Then, if I am true, my flame will be a light to others who have been blessed, and cursed.

I go to Stonepelt. He was right. The truth will save millions, and it will start with two, perhaps. Some may say this group is too small, but I say, were the ancient leaders not 5? Only 5 cats founded principles, customs, and rules we to this day stand on, and live by, protect, and yet they too most likely met criticism, but 10000 moons later, we stand on their tradition, and we are their posterity.

If this truth could have such an impact on us, then imagine the world soon. There would never be a doubt that we should be more enlightened. I tell him the story. The whole truth. He looks stunned.

He replies, "Greyfur, I am shocked. You mean to question StarClan's authority?"

I answer, "They have no power over our enemies. They too meet oblivion. They too die. Why should we praise them for having died? How does death make one wiser? Age is a vanity."

He goes blank. Then, he blows up at me. I feel very hurt. We don't speak for the entire rest of the afternoon. I start to collapse inside. If he doesn't believe, who will? My friend is reliable, always there. Why should I expose it, try to soar, if no one will go along. It was not long ago that we were the same in likings, in friends, and now, that is gone. How shall I live if none dare defy the standard for the only way? I feel dead, unliving. My friendship, no my whole way of life could be over. He has been the only one I could trust, and now he seemingly has abandoned me. Friendship is a vanity.

I could get angry at this forever, but I simply don't intend to make a fuss for too long, so I get back to business. I hunt and I have no luck. The world has seemed to abandon me. I feel… empty. The cold has invaded from the inside and outside. How long shall I survive. I'm all alone.

I suddenly slip into the nearby stream. I am swept away in the current. I feel it consuming me. This is perhaps fitting, because like the truth, I either fall into oblivion, or go with this new current, and wait for a calm pool. As my struggling turns in to weak slaps, I begin to think that StarClan will be my calm pool. I give in. It's nice ,warm water. It's so gentle… like a… paw…

I awaken to find a paw on my chest, it's gray. It's Stonepelt. I get up and gasp.

"I… thought you were gone!", I exclaim.

"So did I, and now I see what you mean. I thought you were nuts, but then I see what you mean. It's so clear. How could I not see it?", he exclaims.

"I suppose that's part of the realization."

Perhaps friendship is not a vanity, rather a foundation.


	4. Epilogue I

I now understand what this all means. Freedom is something you sacrifice it all for. It's not something you have to be in alone. Our numbers grow. Perhaps, one day, we will find the pool of rest. We change our fate daily. Choices are made. We cannot change the past, but rather, strive for the future.

Memories are not vanity. Friendship is not vanity. They will be continuous when all else fades. Perhaps, there is even something that transcends the vastness of time. We cannot grasp it in our time, but you might, and your kits might, or their kits, or so far down they may no longer call them kits.

As for the battle scenes, they last longer now. I know what they are: they are the difference between Oblivion and Freedom. We are the leaders, the pioneers. Our descendants are the main line. We cannot know whether they will hold. Perhaps you can say. After all, young one, you are the future.

Author's Final Comment: I based this short on the story of my path to Jesus. On this night, he gave his life to freedom for his children. I strive to understand, but I fail. I strive to be like him, but I cannot.

_And when he had given thanks, he took the bread, broke it, and said "this is my body, broken for you. Take it and drink in remembrance of me." And in the same way, after dinner, he took his cup, and said "This is a new covenant in my blood. Take and drink in remembrance of me. For when you take this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."_


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